Evil Cultivators

"Spirit Devouring Spell!"

The desperately weakened King Chen was filled with despair. The situation was the polar opposite of what he had expected.

"Why... who are you?"

Still unwilling to give up, he struggled, his Primordial Spirit giving off ripples of light in a futile attempt to drive off the gnawing Spirit Devouring Spell.

Ling Yun stood up, roughly wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth with his wrist, and watched the scene coldly.

"Even now, you still won't tell me what you're after?"

A mocking look crossed Ling Yun's face.

Seeing King Chen grow weaker and weaker without saying another word, Ling Yun hardened his heart and summoned the Three-Inch Flying Immortal. He was about to use the Flying Sword Technique to deliver the finishing blow and end King Chen for good.

But then King Chen's eyes suddenly flew wide open, and green flames blazed deep within his pupils, lessening his pain by several degrees!

In his sea of consciousness, green flames also sprang up around his Primordial Spirit, completely surrounding the last wisp of it. The power of the Spirit Devouring Spell was actually held at bay.

Ling Yun's expression changed in shock at the sight.

"M-master... protect me..."

King Chen struggled into a cross-legged position on the ground. As his words fell, endless green flames burst from his body and burned the entire mountain forest to ashes!

Sensing how terrifying the flames were, Ling Yun dared not touch them and hastily retreated.

He had a premonition that if even a trace of those unknown flames touched him, his flesh and soul would be burned to nothing!

Protected by the flames, King Chen's Primordial Spirit was spared from dissipating, as the Spirit Devouring Spell could no longer break through. As time passed, the strange flames even began to heal it.

"What is that?"

Ling Yun's heart tightened. He understood that the Spirit Devouring Spell was useless now; he could only rely on himself.

Fortunately, although King Chen could summon those flames, he no longer had the presence of mind to fight Ling Yun.

After all, his Primordial Spirit had suffered a fatal blow, and he could barely remain conscious.

"You still have to die."

Ling Yun stood in midair, looking down at King Chen. Without another word, he unleashed the Flying Sword Technique, and the Three-Inch Flying Immortal transformed into five dazzling streaks of light that stabbed toward King Chen.

"Pfft-"

The sound of blades piercing flesh rang out. King Chen's eyes flew open, and black blood streamed from those eerie eyes, making him look utterly terrifying.

A bloody hole between his brows gushed red and white matter down his face, a gruesome and horrifying sight.

Gradually, the flames around King Chen dissipated. The earth around him had been scorched hot, and King Chen, sitting at its center, had finally breathed his last.

Only after a long while did Ling Yun set foot on that soil again. Looking at King Chen's rigidly seated body, he finally let out a deep breath of relief.

"He's dead."

Ling Yun murmured the words aloud.

The mastermind who had troubled him for quite some time had been brought to justice, so he was naturally happy.

But at the same time, the unanswered questions and layers of doubt still hung over his heart.

"A remnant soul?"

All at once, Ling Yun noticed a wisp of remnant soul, on the verge of dissipating, rising like a curl of green smoke from King Chen's sea of consciousness.

After a moment's thought, Ling Yun separated a portion of his divine sense and captured the wisp of remnant soul.

"Can I use the Soul Search Technique?"

Ling Yun hesitated as he looked at the wisp of remnant soul, which was about to dissipate.

The Soul Search Technique was a rather cruel but extremely common forbidden technique. Because low-level cultivators lacked strong control over their divine sense, searching another person's soul would damage that person's soul.

In mild cases, the victim would become dazed, foolish, and vacant. In severe cases, their soul would collapse and perish, and their life and Dao would come to an end.

Moreover, the jumbled memories obtained through a soul search also affected the person performing it. Using the technique too often could very likely leave hidden dangers, or even allow another person's will to influence them and give rise to a heart demon.

I'll try it. The moment I notice anything wrong, I'll sever the connection to my divine sense.

In the end, Ling Yun could not bear to pass up this chance to possibly learn the truth. He carefully separated a wisp of his consciousness and used it to search King Chen's remnant soul.

In an instant, scenes from those memories flashed through Ling Yun's mind like flowers glimpsed from horseback. Because they came from a remnant soul, the memories were badly fragmented, with scarcely a complete scene among them.

Most of the scenes concerned various trivial matters that had taken place within King Chen's territory.

"Hmm..."

Suddenly, Ling Yun saw an utterly bizarre scene.

All these scenes were viewed from King Chen's perspective, so when Ling Yun watched the memories, an extraordinarily vivid sensation rose in his heart.

A vast, terrifying, uncanny, and powerful presence!

In the darkness, a pair of dark green eyes opened. A boundless sea of green flames churned, and figures whose very presence was eerily cold and evil knelt before those enormous eyes!

Devout and fanatical.

"My lord, I have heard that among the Ling Clan's hidden resources is something called the 'Forbidden Heart.' I beg the evil lords to give us nether envoys a chance to steal the Forbidden Heart and then destroy it!"

A much younger voice rang out, though it was unmistakably King Chen's.

"The Forbidden Heart? We know little about it, but since you have volunteered, I grant your request."

A voice like the peal of a great bell answered, making Ling Yun's ears ring.

"We nether envoys will scout the way first. Once our lord's cultivation reaches completion, the time will come for us evil cultivators to emerge..."

When those words rang out, Ling Yun finally understood King Chen's true identity.

"Evil cultivators!"

The moment those words surfaced in his mind, a chill ran down Ling Yun's spine, as though some unknown existence had fixed its gaze on him.

"Bang-"

King Chen's remnant soul dissipated completely. Ling Yun breathed a sigh of relief, only to discover that the enormous eyes had not vanished!

As Ling Yun watched in horror, a chilling gaze shot from the dark green eyes and sped straight toward his sea of souls.

Ling Yun's heart jolted, and he instantly severed his divine sense. At the same time, the sigil on his forehead appeared, and a beam of crimson light erupted from the vertical pupil, blasting away most of the gaze.

In his sea of souls, an immemorial divine statue appeared under the power of the Spirit Refining Technique. The divine wheel behind its head radiated endless divine light, illuminating the entire sea of souls.

At last, the gaze collapsed beneath that immemorial divine light.

"Whew-"

The sudden turn of events left Ling Yun pale, with cold sweat beading at his temples.

"Just as I thought, the Soul Search Technique is far too dangerous, especially with an evil cultivator like King Chen. Even a wisp of his remnant soul bore a mark left by an unknown existence. It nearly struck back at my soul!"

After this battle, Ling Yun had a deeper impression of the dangers of this world, and his resolve to grow stronger became firmer still!

"Evil cultivators!"

"The evil cultivators who plagued the Ling Kingdom a thousand years ago are actually going to emerge again..."

As the heir of the Spirit King's Manor, Ling Yun naturally knew about the calamity from a thousand years ago.

Every Dao Palace Realm expert in the Ling Kingdom had fallen in that battle. Only then had the evil cultivators been made to pay a heavy price and forced to lie dormant once more.

But it was also that battle that had severed the Ling Kingdom's fortune and thrown its order and laws into ruin. Even after a thousand years, the kingdom had yet to recover, and no Dao Palace Realm mighty figure had been born there since.

"The evil cultivators are making a comeback, and King Chen was only a subordinate. That means another Dao Palace Realm existence has appeared among them!"

Ling Yun found it hard to accept for a moment. He had thought it was merely a plot against the Spirit King's Manor, never expecting it to lead to such a momentous chain of cause and effect.

"The Forbidden Heart!"

That was the real reason King Chen had struck at the Spirit King's Manor. Once he obtained the Forbidden Heart, his mission would be perfectly complete.

"It seems the Forbidden Heart is extremely important to the Spirit King's Manor. King Chen had his eye on the Royal Mausoleum. Could the Forbidden Heart be something the first Spirit King left behind?"